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Show Scares Jap Into Quitting Battle Curious Yank Pilot Puts Flyer Out of Fight. ABOARD U. S. CARRIER FLAGSHIP, FLAG-SHIP, WESTERN PACIFIC. A curious American pilot frightened a Japanese aerial gunner right out of an air-sea battle in which 43 Japanese Japa-nese planes were shot down. Ens. Walter Harold ("Mouse") Albert, Braintree, Mass., said it happened when he pulled alongside an enemy bomber, "to make sure it was a carrier plane." "Sure enough," he continued, "I j spotted his tail hook. Then I saw the' I rear seat gunner with his gun pok- I ing at me. But he didn't shoot. He just folded down that gun and pulled J the canopy shut over him. I guess he was scared to death." Eight Japanese fighters, jumping one of our search units two lumbering lum-bering torpedo planes and a Hellcat fighter failed. Among the Yanks j who brought them down was Lieut. ' (j. g.) Harry C. Thomas, 2020 E. Seventy-second place, Chicago, who 1 performed the unusual feat of shooting shoot-ing down a fighter from his torpedo plane. Lieut Elmer Kraft, route 1, Gilman, 111., squadron executive officer who never had shot at a Japanese before, brought down one. |